Timber is used for building borders or walls on the ground to form edging for lawns and gardens. Generally, such edging systems comprise wooden beams and means for anchoring the wooden beams on the ground. However, current devices in the market do not provide a versatile raised border system which can be used to form a raised terrace bed or retaining wall of varying height without requiring extensive use of tools and physical effort to construct.
Frequently, consumers in the home gardening industry will use railroad ties to form landscape edges. However, the general problem with railroad ties is that they are costly, burdensome and once in place become difficult to remove. Further, due to the large weight and size of railroad ties, stacking them to create retaining walls may require excessive labor involving one or more parties and, as a result, be impractical. In addition, a separate means must be applied to anchor the railroad ties both to the ground and to one another.
Some edging devices do not provide the versatility often needed in landscaping due to the fact that they are limited to forming edging only at right angles or of limited shape and size. For example, a user may desire to encircle a large area or create a variety of shapes such as a semicircle, octagon, triangle, trapezoid or parallelogram. As a result, these traditional devices limit the user's creativity. In addition, some edging devices require extensive assembly that is time consuming, labor intensive and complicated. This assembly often includes a significant amount of hardware and tools.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a border system that does not require traditional hardware. In particular, it would be beneficial to have a border system that could be assembled quickly, easily and with minimal or no use of tools. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to have a robust system that can be assembled with relative ease. For example, a system in which the components are snapped into place with minimal effort but which require a significant amount of force to disassemble the pieces, thereby providing a sturdy and resilient border system, is desirable. Nonetheless, it would also be beneficial to have a border system that allows the user to secure beams to the bracket system using traditional hardware if necessary, for example, if the user misplaced the dedicated pieces required for non-hardware assembly. It would also be beneficial to provide a border system that can be assembled using a variety of beam lengths allowing the user to create a border system in a variety of shapes. It would also be beneficial to provide a border system that can be assembled using a variety of different beam materials providing the user the flexibility of using standard materials or special materials. These considerations are addressed by the present invention.